For professional clubs and contracted players, the closing of the January Transfer Window on Wednesday night marks the end of months of speculation and rumour. Well at least until it all starts again.

It’s a little different for non league clubs, particularly those at the lower levels including our own Hellenic Football League sides where players are registered for teams in the most part on non contract basis, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still a transfer window to close!

Darrell has gone in to more depth on the complexities of the non league player transfer system and 7 day approach rule here, but the deadline for player registrations in the Hellenic League and as we understand it the whole English Football Pyramid is 5pm on Saturday 31st March 2018. The Thames Valley Women’s Football League deadline is Thursday 15th March.

The non league system is more in line with the classic transfer deadline that was the norm prior to the 2002/03 season when the European Commission enforced a transfer window system.

An article Premier League website has a little bit about what life was like prior to the introduction of the bi-annual windows. It says: “Players could be traded throughout the season up until 31 March. Beyond that it was felt that allowing transfers could undermine the integrity of competitions.

“For example, a team going for the title might suddenly acquire players from a club with nothing to play for at the end of the season on short-term contracts, not something that was really in the spirit of a season-long league competition. But the rest of the season you could lose, or gain, a player at point.”

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Tom is the co-editor of FootballinBracknell. He has played at the lowest possible level of football. In real life Tom works for Trinity Mirror. Manager of Binfield Ladies in the Thames Valley Women's League.